Matuszni Family Archive

Antoni Matuszny, who came from the Beskid village of Laliki, was interested in photography since he was a child. As he recalls, he wanted to save the life of his family and the countryside in the 1970s from oblivion. At the age of thirteen, he bought the first camera, and when he was 24 – the camera of the Soviet Quarz 5.

Film shot in Węgierska Górka on Polna Street in 1982 and 1983. 

Part 1 

Summer, 1982. Ludwik, Antoni’s father, is cutting planks to build a shed. Antoni, together with his young daughter Paulina and his in-laws Elżbieta and Franciszek Wojciuch, are watching the bricklayers at work; among them can be seen Karol Ficoń and Karol Pawlik, who also acted as site manager. 

Part 2 

1983: The men are pouring concrete for the first floor of a house on Polna Street. The Matusznys were assisted in the construction by family members and friends, including: Jan Porębski (neighbor from Laliki), Jan Krauz (brother-in-law of Elżbieta Wojciuch), Józef Wojciuch (brother of Franciszek), Jerzy Juraszek (cousin of the Wojciuchs), Mieczysław Kubaszczyk (cousin of the Matusznys), Marian Brączyk (brother-in-law of Antoni) and Józef Pawlus (husband of a friend).

(KN, AT)